Two Different Takes On The Coalition

Here’s two different interpretations of the dreaded C. word coalition. Is it going to be a bunch of unprincipled politicians or just a group of losers. You decide .

From Ottawa Citizen Last weekend, Prime Minister Stephen Harper let his guard down and revealed his true thoughts about a Liberal-led coalition government. If the opposition parties lose the next election, and then band together to bring down the Conservatives, he believes this coalition should be regarded as “illegitimate.”

Was he right? Yes and no.

Like it or not, it’s not illegitimate for the Liberals to try to secure a formal or informal agreement with other political parties. Even if they finish second on May 2, they have the constitutional right to attempt to form a coalition and, if successful, take

If the Harper Conservatives end up with something short of a majority, the Black Hole Coalition is activated. Michael Ignatieff has no plans to go back to Harvard. The plan is to go back to the drawing board, to the game called “Let’s do something European. Let’s have a coalition.”

Now we remember how Canadians reacted the last time to the prospect of a coalition government where the first liners, to borrow a hockey term, would be Stephane Dion centering for Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe. But that was then and this is now.

Here’s what Now looks like. The Tories fail to get a majority in May and when Parliament reconvenes they fail to win a vote of confidence following another attempt at a budget.

Michael Ignatieff reaches for his posterior and pulls out a piece of paper with a lot of signatures on it. They all have one thing in common. None of them are members of the Conservative party. All of them are members of parties that lost.

Some could call it a coalition of losers. But it would be a coalition that could easily win the day with the Governor General.